damascus allows u.n. specters access to the site or alleged chemical attack us is claiming the assad government russia warns against jumping to conclusions. also this week that military whistleblower bradley manning asked barack obama for a presidential pardon after being sentenced to thirty five years behind bars the biggest leak of classified data in america's history plus. we were faced effectively with an ultimatum from the british government that if we didn't hand back the material or destroy it to they would move to. the editor of the u.k.'s guardian newspaper reveals how he was pressured to destroy files he received from n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden. says

are things we can use if you live from moscow. and ask given the u.n. inspectors permission to access the site of the alleged mass chemical attack or this is the u.s. says it's almost certain that assad government carried out the assault and a serious response together with its ally the u.k. artie's middle east correspondent assesses the growing tensions. well damascus has agreed to allow u.n. investigators access to the scene of the alleged chemical attack but the point needs to be made that while the damascus says it will do its maximum to ensure safe passage for the investigators the actual territory is rebel held and then so ultimately it will be the rebel forces who determine whether or not the u.n.

investigators have the access that they require we're just hearing however from the united states who says that this now comes too late we are however hearing from the u.n. that they will regardless begin their investigation come monday now this comes as the united states says it has very little doubt that damascus was behind this chemical strike the u.s. intelligence basing these claims on the number of reported deaths we're hearing that upwards of one hundred of one hundred people were in fact killed it also is basing these claims on the types of injuries and on eyewitness reports these kind of discussions are emerging from a meeting of the american president barack obama with his security advisers we know that he's been prevented with a review of possible options in terms of american response if indeed there has been the use of chemical weaponry president obama has repeatedly said that if assad uses chemical weapons that would be a green light that would be

a red line in terms of which american and foreign intervention would be justified now this comes as the united states moves its naval forces in the mediterranean closer to the syrian coast and we are hearing from the united states that it would be prepared to strike if indeed called upon to do so this comes as syrian state television is reporting that syrian soldiers entered a number of tunnels in a damascus suburb that had been used by rebel fighters and they they found evidence of chemical waste there were empty shells that had mocked on them made in saudi arabia and saudi arabia of course being a very vocal critic of the. syrian president bashar assad there seems to be a lot of reports and evidence that the rebels in fact are responsible for carrying out these chemical attacks but let me make the point that all the footage we are witnessing and all the reports that are circulating online are as of yet unverified the rebels for themselves are vowing revenge we have heard from and mr leader in an

audio recording that's also been posted online saying that in revenge they will fire a thousand rockets at the al assad regime and meanwhile the russian foreign ministry says it's worried about the pressure being put on the assad government despite the u.n. investigation into the they're just use of chemicals having not yet begun thomas has more on moscow's reaction. russia is urging caution to the west saying that assigning blame to soon over the alleged use of chemical weapons in syria would be a tragic mistake in fact in a statement released on sunday the foreign ministry did not mention the u.s. by name but i'm going to read what they said it says we strongly urge those who in trying to impose their opinion on u.n. experts ahead of the results of an investigation announce the possibility of military action against syria to exercise discretion and not make tragic mistakes

now again they did not mention the u.s. but this comes as a broke obama has met with his security advisers as well as his military advisers and even spoken to the prime minister of the u.k. cameron and basically saying that they are prepared to use military action making sure they know what is on the table there but president obama has not made a decision as of yet now russia has suggested that in these situations it can be tricky to decide who is actually responsible in has said that it might even be the rebels who are responsible for a chemical attack if in fact a chemical attack has actually happened and in a separate less formal statement russian officials said on sunday that we've seen all of this before in fact discussing the situation in iraq back in the bush administration saying the u.s. administration pointed to weapons of mass destruction which were never found in iraq but that led to an occupation and invasion ten years plus of the united states involvement in the country so russian officials are urging caution saying that the

world community does not want to see a repeat of this situation in syria and is basically asking the west to hold off until the you and investigation has taken place and they know more about the situation. but despite the harsh rhetoric against the syrian government and the u.s. military waiting for a green light to attack it appears that most americans don't want an intervention let's take a look at a recent. poll see what's been revealed there well just nine percent of the u.s. citizens who took part in the survey won their president to act or about sixty percent said the medical should stay away from the civil war in syria when asked about washington support for the opposition eleven percent said the president should do more for the rebels and just send arms well most ninety percent don't want the u.s. to help the opposition or tie a binary an antiwar activist with the code pink campaign says americans are winry of wars their country has been involved in for the last twelve years the united

states has been fighting. a war of choice in iraq it war of choice in afghanistan that turned out to be longer battle the longer fall war than the then the vietnam war which also was a war of choice the american people are war weary we know that what's going on inside syria americans even the average american know it's a proxy war we know we're not going to get the correct information from our government and we know that our government officials are only interested in continuing what would be a fear tactic of a continuation of war after war after war to keep the american public in check in the american public is no longer going to buy into it. international tensions are running high as the pentagon moves naval forces closer to syria despite president obama appearing cautious seven intervention we can tell us what you think on our website r.t. dot com that's have a look today well so far almost half of those who voted say washington wants to

divert americans from domestic problems around the third think the pentagon is ready to strike them out of what the president says about being cautious thirteen percent believe the u.s. is looking for political leverage over chemical arms uranium rest and just eleven percent today the pentagon is readying for an attack just in case you want to r.t. dot com to cast your vote. to see. first rate. and i think you're. going to. be a. former

u.s. army private bradley manning was sentenced to thirty five years in prison this week for his unprecedented leak of classified documents to wiki leaks and exposures through light on america's alleged war crimes committed in iraq and afghanistan. is now hoping for a pardon from the u.s. president and his letter addressed to barack obama insisted that he acted out of concern for his country striving to protect the values and ideals of u.s. planning also said he would gladly pay the price so that other americans can live in a free society as artie's going to chicken reports it's manning's personal issues which are now in the spotlight. bradley manning sentence of thirty five years behind bars has said unimpressive dennet punishments special for whistleblowers bradley manning should be walking the streets and being treated for who is a whistleblower who exposed war crimes in iraq afghanistan secret war in yemen and the other corruption of the governments the us supported bradley manning supporters

gathered outside the white house to call for the president to pardon the whistleblower the supporters of bradley manning say what's at stake here is not just manning the trip but also the future of journalism and the public's right to be informed on the actions that their government is taking on their behalf manning's defense team has submitted a request for a pardon but there seems to be little chance that it will be granted that the government's ongoing crackdown on whistleblowers under the current administration and unauthorized leak to the media of classified information is viewed as being tantamount to aiding the enemy. the government wide crackdown on whistleblowers and the extension of this crackdown to journalists threatens to stifle the flow of information that is vital to our public but the media in the us has largely failed to stand up for bradley manning government officials and t.v. pundits all but convicted the whistleblower even before any trial took place who cares whether the army killed some innocent people or not over in iraq you know we

don't want to we don't want to be a part of that we it's very uncomfortable so if it's a complex issue and it's uncomfortable americans generally will pull back from it allows the media to fill that gap and portray bradley manning as a traitor manning's own personality has grabbed more headlines than the shoes that he uncovered and a day after sentencing many six became the main story who is healthy this week bradley manning announced that he wants to spend the rest of his life as a female and asked to be referred to as chelsea manning one of the defense psychiatry at trial testified that manning has narcissistic tendencies and i wonder if there's anything to that in the sense that she's announcing this in this very big public way no i think this is really trying to let people have the answer that they wanted she never really wanted this to be public to begin with when the

information came out you need to understand this she gave it to her in a limo in a very private setting in a one on one chat never expecting this to be public now that it is unfortunately have to deal with it in a public manner chelsea manning's attorney also said his client never wanted personal issues to become the main story and overshadow the debate that the whistleblower wanted to start through the leaks in washington i'm going to check out. a coming up on l c russia's far east experts predict floodwaters will rise for another seven days or so rescuers into around the clock mission to haul sand bags into nine to hide while. that's ahead. a new leak from whistleblower edward snowden has come to night showing that the national security agency has been listening in on the united nations auntie's report naras in new york with details on this latest revelation. america's national security agency allegedly cracked the encryption guarding the united nations'

internal video conferencing system that's according to german newspaper der spiegel the publication says that the n.s.a. surveillance of the united nations took place last summer and three weeks after happening into the video system america's spy agency had allegedly boosted its number its number of such decrypted communications from twelve to four hundred and fifty eight now for anyone who doesn't already know this spying on the united nations is illegal under international law der spiegel also reports that the u.s. maintains a monitoring program called the special collection service in over eighty embassies and consulates around the world often without the knowledge of the host country now many may be wondering why is it that the united states would want to spy on the united nations but spy on its allies because as we've been reporting and as u.s. president barack obama said himself recently the n.s.a.

is in place to protect american security and target only potential terrorists what we do with it or some mechanisms where we can track a phone number or e-mail address that we know is connected to the terrorist threat now it's unclear how spying on the united nations and international partners coincides with america's war on terror if anything what many critics are saying is that what may come out of the n.s.a. is worldwide surveillance is a loss in confidence and reliability in the united states because you have to think about it if you have a friend that you trust to find out is always spying on you is listening to what you're saying is watching what you're doing is reading what you're typing does that relationship still stay strong and that is a question that is clearly coming to light not only following this report but those questions have been coming to light over the past months ever since edward snowden blew the whistle on n.s.a. spying programs. or prior to this the same german media are could reveal how the

n.s.a. had bugged offices many on the starter a member of the european parliament representing the swedish pirate party says that despite all this you know makers are reluctant to introduce new data protection legislation we did make a good data protection regulation and we are just as nuclear got a protection there collection in the european union however the national security debates around it out of protection of the nation are now incredibly toss in it seems that european political leaders are not just willing to. teach steps to safeguard the trust and confidence in public networks in internet newsgroups that maybe we as citizens would like for them to undertake but also in general looking seemed europe this is a mishmash of outreach statements and political inaction or leaker authority reports from report not talked about earlier came from germany but britain's guardian newspaper has published many of edward snowden's previous revelations that

lead to the government forcing them to the straw a secret files because they fear the data could fall into the wrong hands if the papers served as well hacked or copies of the files had already been made and sent to servers outside the country on these tests australia has more. you've had your fun now with starting to return of the documents so the unnamed government official to the newspaper editor it could be the stuff of movies only it isn't we were faced effectively with an ultimatum from the british government that if we didn't hand back the material or destroy it they would be moved to law in recent months the guardian newspaper has come to be known as the paper that's been exposing secret material from a trove of information passed on to wit by former contractor of the national security agency edward snowden but in recent days the editor of the newspapers also publicized what had gone on a behind closed doors here how security officials had ended up in the basement of their offices overseeing the destruction of hard drives of computers which

contained the very information the paper's been exposing a bizarre turn of events salaries major says that came all the way up from the prime minister's office once it was obvious that they would be going to law. i would rather destroy the copy than hand it back to them or allow the courts to freeze our reporting and i was happy to destroy it because it was not going to inhibit our reporting we would simply do a problem erica not from london the twenty first century possibility in a highly digital and connected world the revelation by rusbridger came just a day after the attention of david miranda part of the guardian journalist and glenn greenwald the journalist who had broken the story of snowden's leaks and the same materials around it was detained under the u.k.'s terrorism act and was held in question for nine hours at heathrow airport it caused an outcry among politicians and journalists and even david anderson the independent reviewer of

terrorism laws who demanded an explanation prompting the u.k. home office to go on the offensive the government and the police have a duty to protect the public and our national security those who oppose this sort of action need to think about what's their condoning. if they want to protect the public to tell the public what it is they're protecting them from a generalized statement about terrorism in general doesn't really do the trick you've got to be able to say well the information he's got the public for the following reasons you've got to have reasons for it no such reasons have been advanced and rand is new tension as well as the destruction of computers and the guardian's basement has one of britain's most respected newspapers in the spotlight the story teller has become this story this is a very damaging moment actually for britain's reputation for free speech is being laid bare the way that the british state is very prepared to use terrorism legislation to use accusations of terrorism in order to shut down what looks to be

journalistic practice healthy investigative journalism with some of pointed to be noticeably lackluster response from the country's other newspapers following his revelations especially considering that press appears to be at stake the business of reporting securely and having confidential sources is becoming difficult in these documents there is no stated ambition to scoop up everything and store it all to master the internet this is the language that's being used internally this or celia r.t.e. london. will have all sorts of. right now but america's founding fathers are for an extremist ideology the office of the defense department. the us all a member of. government. foreign

targets. now to russia work stream flooding continues to devastate the far east experts say levels of not paid in may continue to rise until the second or third of the. temblor well that's another whole week for a region that's already more than seven meters under water let's take a look at the situation on our map here well this is where it all began the murray river first its banks after weeks of unrelenting downpours covering an area the size of france and germany combined what has been declared a federal emergency for nearly three weeks with water rental rain feeding the rising flood waters and these three regions a particular happen the worst affected about eighty five thousand homes on the threat in the bar of school region alone three dozen towns of over three thousand inhabitants already under water as you can see here the regional capital city of over half a million lives on the. river where rescuers volunteers and soldiers are

fighting to also fire a river bank thirty kilometers long while scott brings us the very latest on the efforts there. like this is marina a resident of culturally also a risky island and this is marina's house water waist high the entire ground floor resembling a cesspit rather than a home now it's only when you enter the properties that you see the extent of the damage that these floodwaters have caused now despite knowing as best attempts to try and keep many of her treasured possessions out of the water it was simply in vain the entire house is completely submerged and it's clear looking around it's going to take a lot of time money and effort before this place returns to normal. marina is one of hundreds in this region to have been evacuated in recent days by russia's emergency services she can't take everything with her and doesn't know when she'll

be able to return for now she'll stay with friends move here they. have been crying all week we've lost all our property and that's after we've renovated hung new wallpaper up place new carpets. although some hearty souls remain predominantly this village is like a ghost town but despite the chaos there are resilient attempts to carry on as normal the shop remains open although when we visited business was sly many of those evacuated from their homes and up in temporary accommodation centers in schools and sports holes for thirty's and volunteers providing supplies such as food drinking water and medicine that some rest bite for those who have lost everything just get the policy it's good that aid is going to come there is good they do have there but he needed to stay there his patel tease greet the treat us

like the children although the situation in the how about oscar region remains critical for the west as hope the worst is over in the region attention is now turning to the cleanup operation just. the situation is changing and we are going to regroup our forces people now come from the neighboring a more region four planes arrive here every day but now water levels in some parts of this region have already beaten records that have stood for more than one hundred and twenty years that's of six hundred and forty two centimeters and the fear is that as the rains continue that could push the eight meter barrier causing even more devastation and destruction to people's lives and homes the military and emergency services continue to work around the clock to reinforce how about i ask concern the defenses could be breached by water that at the moment shows no signs of receding i'm with flood levels not expected to ease until mid september the true extent of the damage is yet to reveal itself and it could be some time yet before

the full picture emerges postcards. about oscar. now some more international news in brief for another area of attacks in iraq of claimed the lives of forty eight people in eight separate assaults the most deadly was the northern city of mosul or eleven died in a car bomb explosion blast in five other cities including three in the capital killed civilians and left dozens injured authorities blame insurgents for the bloodshed but have not named any particular group. gyptian court has adjourned the trial of former president hosni mubarak was accused of complicity in the killings of protesters in the twenty seven uprising barrack was sentenced to life behind bars not. here you'll be ruling hearing comes amid a new spike of internal strife triggered by the muslim brotherhood's removal from office in army. a cargo train known for

transporting central american migrants as do you road in southern mexico killing at least five and leaving scores wounded the crash occurred in the remote area of tabasco state and around two hundred fifty migrants were traveling on the infamous bestie a train when it do railed an unknown number of people remain trapped inside. a prominent german euro skeptic politician has been attacked on stage during a rally in the city in brighton to our known assailant sounded not jumped on me as he was making a speech at the un to un campaign event some two dozen others then covered the audience with pepper spray and tear gas his party which once the year abolished has been the subject of several attacks in the last two months. and more than half a million people living in the u.k. could be set to lose their homes over debts as small as

a thousand pounds so for new regulation of applies to people's unsecured loans auntie's point of order as mine. frankie's ran up several thousand pounds worth of credit card bills that he can't pay off and because of new laws he could lose his home as a result new regulations state that an individual needs to own just a thousand pounds on their credit card or personal loans for a lender to force them to sell their home through court nobody asked me or twisted mile for somebody to take out the credit write that small are doing entirely but the word unsecured was attached to it unsecured borrowing is borrowing that it isn't attached to anything initially you're not at risk of losing anything if you don't repay but after government huge fan all that changed a charging order is a way for a lender to secure a debt from a credit card or a personal loan against an individual's house back in two thousand and ten the coalition government promised to make the threshold for charging orders i returned

to five thousand pounds but they changed their minds which means that frank who is now being pursued by the buying can face is losing his house over a debt of six thousand pounds we want to about the threshold set at twenty five thousand pounds if we want to buy extra layer of consumer protection the government has made it easier for lenders to get charging orders frankie says he feels angry about the coalition's change of heart this situation should never of come to me unsecured mings unsecured. but it's not like they'll secure my property when i didn't sign for a secured loan he's not alone britain's office of fair trading has already warned major banks over threatening to force debtors to sell their homes over debts of just over a thousand pounds but the justice ministry says that by introducing the threshold they're actually helping protect debt as people having to sell their house to pay off debts should always be a last resort we want it to stay that way which is why we've introduced a minimum threshold on charging orders that provides appropriate protection to

creditors and debt is one ensuring that even fewer people have to sell their homes but house prices in the u.k. are on the rise and debt charities are predicting a surge in charging orders it's very disappointing that they produce that threshold because that one thousand pounds is an incredibly low sum of money to i want to own a credit card or personal life and we don't think it should ever be the case anyone is it is a danger of losing their home over such a small sum frank he says he can't afford to pay back his debts how does that make you feel the thought of losing your. how do you think it makes me feel i mean i feel for really sick and more war through was a really sick over it it's something in the good times we took pride in playing and the bad songs we've struggled very very holds this extra pressure financial pressure is causing a rift between. our relationships were strong and. loss not good and with

his court date penciled in for september it's beginning to hit home to frankie that he could lose the house he's lived in for over twenty years. r.t. london. coming up off the break it's cross talk with host people about the. world of. science technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the future covered wealthy british style. sometimes.